The University of Hawaii baseball team stranded whatever chances it had of extending a 10-game winning streak.
On base. Again and again and again.
The Rainbow Warriors left a hefty 17 runners on Sunday – leaving the bags loaded in the first, second and eighth innings – as Long Beach State salvaged the finale of a four-game series with an 8-5 win at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu.
UH (11-3) had been off to its first 3-0 start in nine years in the Big West to give coach Mike Trapasso his longest winning streak in 20 years as coach. But the Dirtbags bounced back for their first win of the season after losing their first series to ‘Bows since 2015. Long Beach (1-3) scored three runs in the first off of starter Logan Pouleson, and Calvin Estrada homered in the third off of reliever Connor Harrison (0-1).
One of the times the ‘Bows did take full advantage of a bases-loaded situation was in the third. A single, a walk, and a hit by pitch filled the bags for Jared Quandt, whose single was misplayed, allowing all three runners to score to tie the game 4-4. Beyond that, UH was 1 for 7 with the bases loaded as the Dirtbags used six pitchers.
Long Beach took the lead for good in the next inning by scoring twice with the help of one of UH’s three errors.
“It’s a good opener, but I definitely think we should have gotten the sweep,” Jake Hymel, who pitched 3-1/3 shutout innings of relief, told KHON2 after the game.
A pair of former Waiakea standouts helped UH keep the bases so busy. Designated hitter Jacob Igawa collected two of the ‘Bows 12 hits and was hit by a pitch, and freshman Safea Villaruz-Mauai delivered a pinch-hit RBI double in the seventh off of hard-throwing reliever Devereaux Harrison to cut the lead to 7-5. Off the bat it looked like an ordinary flyball but dropped suddenly, due to strong wind, in left field, and Villaruz-Mauai hustled into second base. After a walk, Quandt stepped in with the bases loaded but couldn’t improve on a three-hit day, grounding out.
Left-hander Tai Atkins, a two-time BIIF Division II player of the year during his time at Kamehameha, came on in the seventh and got two outs to get the ‘Bows out of a jam. Atkins retired the side in order in the eighth, getting a strikeout, but he was pulled after walking the leadoff hitter in the ninth and was charged with a run in his second appearance of the season.
Playing in half of UH’s games so far, Igawa is batting .350 (7 for 20), while Villaruz-Mauai leads all eligible hitters with a team-best .364 average (8 for 22), and he has eight RBIs in five starts. Former Waiakea standout Stone Miyao made one start at second base in the series, going 1 for 4 with a run scored in a 6-4 win Saturday, and he’s batting .227 in six games and 22 at-bats. Catcher Dallas Duarte, a Kamehameha slum, also was 1 for 4 with a run scored in that game and is hitting .292 in nine games and 24 at-bats.
UH hits the road for a four game series against conference front-runner UC Irvine (10-7, 4-0 Big West) that starts Friday. The Anteaters opened Big West play by sweeping UC Davis.
“No team is going to stand in our way of trying to compete and win,” Hymel said.
